ARTEL'S Pipette Calibration System
Researchers walk a fine line between the real world of botched experiments and the ideal world of rigorously controlled laboratory conditions they are expected to uphold. At times, some experimentalists would be willing to admit that the real world of publication deadlines and grant proposals intrudes on the laboratory environment. The enormous pressure to publish or teach places unusual constraints on the time of researchers, who may find themselves unable to practice the normal hygienic routines and protocols for calibrating laboratory apparatus.

ARTEL, in Portland, Maine, has developed a new automated pipette calibrating system (PCS) that resolves the issue of whether or not to calibrate. According to the company's original research, fewer than one in three pipettes and fewer than one in five pipette operators meet standards of less than 1 percent inaccuracy. There are three ways of dealing with this information: (1) Introduce a margin...

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